1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a medicine dispensing apparatus capable of dispensing medicines one by one.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, medicines are contained in cassettes fixed to a stock shelf in such a way that the cassettes can be pulled out. According to need, a cassette is pulled out from the storage shelf so that a medicine contained in the cassette can be extracted (see, e.g., JP H10-201825 A).
However, in the stock shelf, the medicine should be grasped from an upper aperture of the pulled-out cassette, and therefore the contained medicine is sometimes difficult to extract depending on the arranged position of the cassette. Moreover, as the number of medicines contained in the cassette increases, not only the cassette itself is difficult to pull out but also the medicines contained on the inner side of the cassette are hard to extract. Further, in the case of, for example, a medicine such as anticancer drugs whose administration is strictly restricted; it is not desirable to allow free access to the medicine. However, adopting a structure featuring a solution such as locking will deteriorate workability and also require an additional operation to confirm that the medicines are securely locked up.